Empowering the Guardians of our Communities

It takes a certain type of person to willingly risk his or her life to protect others, and truth be told, not many of us are equipped with the necessary courage and allegiance. For those that are, we thank you. Our police and first responders are the guardians of our communities — true heroes without capes. We entrust them to maintain societal order and keep potential danger at bay. Their role is crucial in repairing society’s connective tissue as they are truly the best example of empowering us to do collectively what we cannot do individually.

Our police and first responders are the guardians of our communities — true heroes without capes.

This concept of community connectedness and selfless pride shared by law enforcement and first responders is what inspired Scott Crouch to found his company, Mark43, in 2012.  It was during his time as a student at Harvard when Crouch had the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with the Massachusetts State police department. He was assigned a group project using data to help the police force fight gang-related crimes. That’s when he discovered how outdated the technology and existing software systems truly were. After countless hours of police ride-alongs and witnessing the inefficiencies of reporting and manual data entry, Crouch decided to turn his class project into a full-fledged business.

After countless hours of police ride-alongs and witnessing the inefficiencies of reporting and manual data entry, Crouch decided to turn his class project into a full-fledged business.

“Coming from a family of community officers and other law enforcement officials, I had a general idea of how stressful their lives can be,” explained Crouch. “What I didn’t realize is how much unnecessary stress resulted from clunky software and difficult to operate reporting tools. From there, I was determined to gear our first responder heroes with the latest and greatest technology and reporting platform, making their lives easier so they could in turn better serve our communities.”

Mark43’s cloud-based software platform has been been designed to resolve poor user interface and latency issues inherent in legacy reporting systems that in many cases have not been overhauled since the 1990s. The multi-billion dollar technology market for policing was stagnant and presented a massive opportunity for innovation. Using Mark43’s new software, law enforcement officials can process arrest reports, seamlessly share data with other team members and complete all necessary administrative tasks in a fraction of the time.

The multi-billion dollar technology market for policing was stagnant and presented a massive opportunity for innovation.

Interest in Mark43’s two core software applications, Mark43 Records Management System and Mark43 Computer Aided Dispatch is growing. In the last year, a dozen or so counties across the US east coast (and more recently in California and the Pacific Northwest) have made the switch to Mark43’s software. Crouch expects this adoption trend to continue as the company integrates new features for multimedia and video management, builds out their digital evidence record management platform and teases the idea of a revamped 911 reporting system. The end goal? To provide a full governance management platform that can streamline data sharing and reporting across all agencies, making government employees’ jobs easier and citizens’ lives more secure.

The end goal? To provide a full governance management platform that can streamline data sharing and reporting across all agencies, making government employees’ jobs easier and citizens’ lives more secure.

Upon recently completing a $38 million Series C funding round, Mark43 has also attracted top talent including two former Google Cloud for Government executives that grew Google Apps (GSuite) adoption in U.S. government agencies from zero to one million users. David Mihalchik, Mark43’s new Chief Growth Officer and Manosh Chakravorty, Director of Global Sales will work closely with Crouch to unlock new opportunities and champion Mark43’s vision for the future of public safety technology.

“Scott has built one of best startup teams not just in govtech, but in the world of startups,” said Ron Bouganim, Managing Partner of the Govtech Fund. “Mark43’s mantra is something we can all get behind. Their software is foundational as an enabler of government operations modernization. But mostly, Mark43 is equipping the men and women serving and protecting our communities with the right tools to do their jobs in a more efficient manner. We could not be prouder to partner with with the Mark43 team and have them as one of Govtech Fund’s portfolio companies.”

Follow Mark43 on Twitter and visit their website to keep up with latest ways they are modernizing law enforcement technology.